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Chapter 274
High Five (ハイタッチ Hai Tacchi) is the 274th chapter of manga, Baby Steps. Characters in Order of Appearance *Marcia O'Brien *Eiichiro Maruo *Alex O'Brien *Hisashi Kanda *Atsushi Taira *Soji Ike *Krishna Ramesh Summary As Eiichiro is starting to get overwhelmed by the thoughts of "have to do", he tries beach tennis together with Kanda and Marcia. Synopsis Ei-chan declines Marcia's challenge because the bus back to the academy is leaving in 5 minutes, which disappoints Marcia. But after Alex tells him not to make Marcia sad, Ei-chan protests that they could play next time. (Kanda offers himself as an opponent but Marcia turns him down flat.) Sawa suggests Ei-chan come over on his next day off; Sawa explains he'll be at the beach all week so he'll be available to play with Ei-chan even on the weekend. Ei-chan suggests Saturday afternoon and Sawa agrees, so Eichan asks Marcia if she's free on Saturday, and when she says she is, Ei-chan suggests having their game then. She accepts. In the days that follow, after meeting Marcia Wednesday, Ei-chan's whole body, including eyes and head, was screaming. Every day there's new training that he has to do, and he's realizing he has lots of deficiencies in many areas, but he sees no reason not to complete all the training; there's no point in concentrating on learning if he can't make use of it in an actual game. By Friday, Atsushi comments that Ei-chan seems a bit overworked. He says he understands wanting to become stronger quickly and feeling impatient, but if Ei-chan approaches training with a sense of obligation, that he "has to do something," the efficacy of the training will be reduced. Training should be done with as sense of "want to," not "have to." Ei-chan says he's been told that even by his coach in Japan, adding that he'd forgotten and he has to adopt that thinking. Atsushi hears that and reminds Ei-chan he ought to drop the "have to do" (as in "have to adopt that"). Atsushi wonders to himself if this (Ei-chan's?) way of frequently combining tenacity with the ability to get all good results is too much. Then he asks if Ei-chan has anything planned for when Ei-chan is off. Ei-chan says he's being challenged to beach tennis by Marcia on Saturday. Atsushi says it might be a nice break, adding that he'll come along so that Ei-chan won't push himself too much while he's tired. Come Saturday, Ei-chan and Atsushi arrive at the beach to find Kanda there with Marcia, Alex, and Sawa. When Ei-chan expresses surprise, Kanda explains he'd been living in the dorm of an all-boys school until recently, so it's impossible that he'd pass up a chance to play with a girl on his day off. He asks if Ei-chan understands and suspects he doesn't since Ei-chan is a guy who has a girlfriend. Sawa explains the rules for beach tennis. Since the ball shouldn't touch the ground, it requires volleying, and Ei-chan thinks volleying is a competition of reflexes, which means he might be able to do it—it might even be his specialty since he has proof that he has good eyes. Then Sawa adds that beach tennis is a doubles game, so Ei-chan ends up partnered with Kanda. After Ei-chan gets hit in the face and falls on his back, he realizes it doesn't hurt since the ball and the surface (sand) are soft. Ei-chan starts getting into the game and forgets that Kanda is there. Ei-chan thinks that since the opponent is closer in beach tennis, it seems he can train his reflexes. Since the ground is soft sand, he can train his sense of balance and improve the strength of his legs. Plus, since it's difficult to get injured, he can do plays that he'd just imagined. Then he concludes it's fun. (Kanda thinks what they're doing is similar to mini-games he'd done in Kabai.) Sawa comments in Marcia's hearing that the two (Ei-chan and Kanda) are amazing and not ordinary people. Sawa and Marcia win the first game, so they change courts. Sawa says in beach tennis, during change of court, the opponents exchange "high touches." While exchanging a high touch with Ei-chan, Sawa compliments him, saying his reactions are extremely good. Marcia, on the other hand, tells Ei-chan that even though Alex and Sawa have acknowledged Ei-chan, she hasn't acknowledged him. Alex comments that he doesn't remember acknowledging Ei-chan that much, while Atsushi thinks this might be good for Ei-chan's practice. Navigation Category:Volume 29 Category:Training at IMG Academy Arc